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Both bodies are well supported the thing i think you need to consider more than the actual body is the HUD - how easy it is to use and what the skin options are like if your current skin doesn't have an applier, you will be using the HUD a lot. when i went mesh i demoed all the well supported bodies and decided on Maitreya what clinched it for me was i liked the HUD ease of use and more importantly the skin options it was the only body HUD that would colour match with my previous skin. The issue i have with Belleza is the three bodies not all creators that do Belleza create for all three bodies so you need to research if your favourite fashion brands do the body you're planning on getting

Any modern skin that isn't putting out an applier for ALL THREE of Slink, Belleza, and Maitreya, PLUS Omega... is a brand worth switching off of at the first opportunity to find something likable. If a skin maker isn't supporting the trend in SL that has been the major trend for several years now... you have to wonder what their plans are.

I consider the HUD skins to be the 'training wheels' of a mesh body. Especially as, other than Belleza Jake, I've yet to see them come with compatible Mesh head appliers. THAT SAID... all of the HUD skins for Belleza are actually the tones that Belleza uses in their skin selection.

Belleza is really a skin shop. Maitreya was a clothing shop. I use 'is' for Belleza on purpose there... the biggest problem with Belleza that I see is that it's active owner is still a skin maker, and I believe it is his/her team that makes the mesh. Not sure exactly on the roles... but all this time while Belleza is slow to update the model, they are still pushing out new skins...

BUT all those new skins use the same body tones as in the Belleza HUD.

(This hits another complaint with Belleza, one of the BEST African body skins I have ever seen was in the Belleza HUD of previous version. I kept hoping she would put out a matching face for it... but instead it was pulled from the HUD in the current release. The quality of that body skin was PERFECT for me... and that issue still bugs me 2 years on...)

But if you're white, or certan shades of Hispanic or Asian... and you can get your features using any Belleza skin... that HUD has your skin already for the body...

NOW... I find it a bit "unfair" to ever complain about Belleza's 3 bodies... given that everybody else EXCEPT Solarian only gives you one body with the purchase. And Solarian is a cat furry... so while it is a great fitmesh body, super low lag and copy/mod... with full third party bento support because the ENTIRE dev kit is INCLUDED in buying the body (you buy the body, you get a download link to the kit to use in Blender to model things for it) it's off topic here.

BUT... Almost all creators make for Freya and nearly as many make for Isis. About half make for Venus. A scant few make for Isis but not Freya. The only ones that makes Venus only are the ones who haven't put anything out for Belleza in over 3 years... The bigger issue is that all Belleza "full" bodies come with 3 'breast positions': Natural, Perky, and I forget number 3 because I never use these...
- Creators generally ONLY make for Natural. A few only make Perky. and fewer still make for both Perky and Natural. I have yet to see any product for the 3rd position... and Perky and the 3rd position are basically only meant FOR restrictive clothing... so they're generally only used with "Applier clothes"...

- And that gets to a benefit of Belleza...

The "lite" body... bad spelling is on purpose. that is how Belleza spelled it, because somebody never looked in a dictionary to find out the difference between 'lite' and 'light'...

The "lite" body is actually a light body. It has many features removed, to cut down on lag. It may have been designed as a response to a specific request by me that I threw at them constantly in the year before it came out. I hammered this point at them over and over again... I publicly roasted them on them point over and over again... even though no other major brand offers this... I did it out of love and they listened...
- the point is that... unless you are WEARING applier clothing... all those Applier layers are just lag beasts being carried around and not used... so give us a copy of the body without all that weight... and... they did.

The "lite" bodies of Belleza... creators don't need to worry about - the same clothing that fits full fits lite. But I as a user... almost always wear the "lite" body as it dramatically cuts my "avatar complexity', makes the body rez faster, and reduces script weight...

AND... that gets to ANOTHER feature of Belleza...

The last button on the left side of the HUD... click it, and on the tab that folds out, is a button to remove the scripts in your currently attached body...
- After I configure a body for an outfit, I do this. It kills the ability to use the HUD on that copy of the body... BUT it also makes that copy super light weight...

When I'm running around on a copy of Belleza Lite Freya that has had the scripts removed... I'm almost as low on lag as a classic SL avatar. The ONLY body that competes on this score... is the Solarian cat furry...

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Any modern skin that isn't putting out an applier for ALL THREE of Slink, Belleza, and Maitreya, PLUS Omega... is a brand worth switching off of at the first opportunity to find something likable. If a skin maker isn't supporting the trend in SL that has been the major trend for several years now... you have to wonder what their plans are

I am conscious there will be people out there that still use skins from brands that maybe no longer exist where an applier will never be available. skin shopping can be daunting if you've lived in the same skin for years and worry you won't find another "you". I was like that when coming in to mesh but being Impressed with how close the lighter glam affair shades in the Maitreya HUD came to the skin i had been using I went demoed their skins and found one that still looked like the me I'd been used to for years.

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It’s not that Belleza is for people that want a curvy avi. It does curvy better than Maitreya though. It also does slim equally well too though.

Agreed! I have some clothing that was made for Freya and not Isis, so I adjusted my Freya shape and it is quite comparable to the shape I had with my Isis body. So Belleza does slim and it is quite possible to go slim even with Freya. ❤

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Oh, so all women who don't carry around two watermelons on their chest and hips so wide, that you start to wonder how they even got trough the door are anorexic. Which means most women in real life must be anorexic then. Fine, then I prefer being anorexic.

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Hey! I forgot something that I did while I was still shopping for a body. while I was out and about in SL, at dance clubs, or at Mesh Body Addicts, when I saw someone with a really striking look, I'd ask, "Do you mind if I ask you which mesh body you're wearing?" And I won't tell you the results I got, because it doesn't matter - the thing is, you'll see what you want without having a mental preconception first about one body or another.

The funny part is that I asked these two amazing-looking women at the same time which mesh body they were wearing, and neither was wearing one.

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I have all the main bodies, Maitreya, Belleze x3, Slink x 2, TMP, Eve, Altamura free and others like Kimono which are not applicable here but in my opinion, the easiest to use and the one most designer's design for is The Maitreya Body. It is also far and above my favourite. Hope this helps.

I am a blogger and have tried them all out in many different ways as well as mesh heads - of which LAQ is my favourite. Again it is all down to personal choice and I would suggest trying the demos for a while each one of the main three, Maitreya, Slinka and Belleza.

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It’s not that Belleza is for people that want a curvy avi. It does curvy better than Maitreya though. It also does slim equally well too though.

It does slim better. One look at the bosom in particular shows this. But also the legs and arms won't 'flatline' not pencils, but retains natural waves / curves that are present in thin bodies as well as natural bodies. I would NOT call Kardashian natural or curvy. But extreme. And yes, Belleza can do that look ALSO. And does it better than bodies like SKING that are designed to just do a comedy version of it.

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I don't understand why I am being called a beanpole anorexic because of my choices.

I won't say you are... but that comment came about in DIRECT RESPONSE to the 'Kardadshian' and 'watermelon' (a bit of racism thrown into here just for good measure eh?) comment.

Let's be clear on where this thread went from civil opinions to nasty... it wasn't you, it ALSO wasn't anyone on the Belleza side... It was a specific person above you that mentioned Kim Kardashian.

Let's just get back to civilly promoting our favorites, sometimes a little strongly, but without being mean - even if we do say rather extreme comments about some of the body's design choices, keep it away from the hostile at people and their choices.

*****

I happen to feel Belleza handles the full range of shapes better. I feel very strongly about that. Clearly not everyone agrees with me there. I am also quit willing to point out Belleza's shortcomings - as I did some of in my super long post above. The biggest shortcoming they have is they take super long to do updates. They consider this a feature: Do it right not do it fast. I disagree with them. But then again I am an "Agile Development Engineer"... I work in the Silicon Valley in a software paradigm where we put out new code weekly if not daily, in small increments, and patch it constantly - so that the clients are always "moving forward". I see Belleza's approach as the old "IBM / Microsoft / Apple" way... and that way tends to leave those companies lagging behind. Apple, much as I love them, is often way behind and only survives on the strength of it's marketing...

(and when you go from growing up poor in a racist environment, where you had to fight to survive, to homeless, to a self taught engineer pushing at the edges of the 1% in an industry where most of the people of your race work for the janitorial staff but the same people treating them like dirt have to address you respect if they want to stay around... - fighting in fast change becomes the way you see life. "Agile" is built into me beyond just my career. In the ghetto we called it 'hustling'. Different methods, same notion: be quick and one step ahead of the target sign.)

I love Belleza... but I have no ability to effect their method of development, much to my frustration.

But Maitreya actually isn't better on this score... it IS however, more timely. Maitreya patches 'right away' when a technology change happens... but then doesn't come back to clean it up later...

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I won't say you are... but that comment came about in DIRECT RESPONSE to the 'Kardadshian' and 'watermelon' (a bit of racism thrown into here just for good measure eh?) comment.

Watermelons are actually fruit that many people eat and they are often use to relate other things to 'large round objects'; thus not every statement that has that word in it is tossing racism into the mix.

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It does slim better. One look at the bosom in particular shows this. But also the legs and arms won't 'flatline' not pencils, but retains natural waves / curves that are present in thin bodies as well as natural bodies. I would NOT call Kardashian natural or curvy. But extreme. And yes, Belleza can do that look ALSO. And does it better than bodies like SKING that are designed to just do a comedy version of it.

This. Belleza VENUS is the best body you can get if you're going for an *athletic* look: good muscle tone in legs and arms without ten-gallon-sized, helium-filled boobs and watermelon-sized booty.

I have (personally-speaking) never been impressed by Maitreaya WITH REGARD to getting the look I want. So I wore a Venus for years. But now that more and more creators are dropping Venus and sticking only with Isis and Freya in their Belleza versions I decided to go shopping. Grabbed all the demos I could - even the Maitreya again. On a technical side: of al of them I like the HUD and abilities best on the Tonic and the Tonic comes closest to matching that look I loved with my Venus. NOT saying Tonic is any better or worse than any other.

All the bodies are great if they fit the look you are going for. Well, except for TMP which is apparently on the final countdown to retirement (according to the rumors and signs, anyway).

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Watermelons and Kim Kardashian body shaming comments... you're basically looking at a proxy attack using 'memes' that are brought up in 'black body type shaming'.

Especially given it's the same person making all these comments attacking larger bodies by using extremes that are taken from 'race baiting' themes.

*sigh*

I haven't even had the slightest thought about race in mind when wording my comment. But I'm not suprised its you again seen racism where there is none. But since you won't believe me (or even question your own view, when you are the only one around thinking you spoted something racist) I'll happily explain to you why I chose the words I chose.

I chose watermelons, because they had been the first huge round object that came to my mind, as a comparison for size. Might have seen a funny chart once, that explained cup size with fruits, so I took that. Your american sterotypes ain't mine, don't force your cultural assumptions on me. I picked Kim Kardashian, because a) she was the first that came to my mind b) her (probably altered) bodyshape came close to a type of shape thats very popular in SL and often described by its owners as "female and curvy" (and yes, its extreme, but if you haven't noticed: thats exactly what many shapes in SL tend to be, one way or another!). And last time I checked Kim Kardashian wasn't black and a curvy body and noticeable butt/hips aren't exclusive to black people/none existant for any other female on the planet.

You seriously want to drag people into any fight you can imagine, right? This isn't about you. This isn't about your personal forum war against racism. And now pack up your double standarts and leave me alone, because if you are so offended by bodyshaming, I ask you, were have you been, when anyone not falling into that certain SL bodyshape (or even anyone not using a certain mesh body) was called all kinds of bodyshame words? Oh, not your call to action, because you couldn't make it into an attack against black people or because you may even felt the same, because its not your body of choice being ridicouled or because you don't give two [ripe papayas] unless its about black women?!

Please someone tell me, that this [blesséd] forum got a _useful_ block function. I'm so [adequately] done with this [tomfoolery].

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I have 9 female avatars of which 5 have Maitreya, none have Belleza or SLink. I trialed them but just didn't like the way they looked, or their HUDs.

My main me (Maitreya), is short, curvy, flat-chested (V-Tech), with seemlessly skinned wrists and ankles, plus bento hands. She has an enormous wardrobe and shoe collection of which much cost nothing, just the time and effort for hunts, luckyboards and freebie sniffing. It is extremely unusual for something I acquire not to fit me.

Other bodies on others include TMP-basic (free), Cute Factor & EVE.

I didn't take to Belleza at all, although they're commonly included as an option in clothing, same goes for SLink. But I dump them all to keep inventory numbers down.